Even with the introduction and widespread use of various techniques for filtering spam, spam continues to be a significant problem for many email users. While a wide range of settings for filtering can be used, if the filtering criteria used are too strict, too many legitimate email messages may be caught in the filter, making the filter practically unusable. Alternatively, if the filtering criteria are too permissive, too many spam messages may get through the filter, again rendering the filter ineffective. Finding the right balance has been difficult.
Spam is undesirable for many reasons. Spam messages may be carriers of viruses (e.g. worms, Trojan horses, etc.) that may damage application software or the operating system, reduce system performance, or compromise user privacy by surreptitiously capturing personal information or tracking and reporting usage habits. As well, in certain operating environments, such as a wireless communications network, spam messages forwarded to a mobile communications device may incur significant network usage charges (e.g. based on bandwidth usage, elapsed time, or message count), or roaming charges (i.e. when the communications device is being used on a wireless network other than that of the local service provider).
Thus, what is needed is a more effective system and method of managing spam, especially in a wireless operating environment.